The parish of Westward is in Cumbria, on the edge of the Lake District. It is a rural community in a beautiful, and sometimes breathtaking environment. The parish is a collection of hamlets and is divided into the two electoral wards of Westward and Rosley. We are a vibrant community with many activities in the two village halls. The interests of the parish are represented by the members of the Parish Council

Resolved – minutes of the Annual Parish meeting held on the 15th of May 2017 were received and signed by the chairman as a true record.

3. Chairman’s Report

Cllr Brown welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked John Hartley (prospective Councillor) for attending. He advised that Allerdale had made a good job of the roads but there were still some bad pot holes. The Northern Fells Group continue to help all in need and hold regular walks, classes etc – thanks to Barbara Stoddart for this.The Village Hall is as popular as ever, Stocks Wood a woodland school is new to the parish and the newly refurbished Royal Oak is very popular with a good restaurant.It has been a good year.Thanks to Cllr Fairbairn (Allerdale & County Councillor) for all his hardwork, and due to illness is now working from home - all the best to him.Thanks to all the parish councilors for their commitment & help over the year and the clerk for all her guidance.

4.Open Session

The following questions were raised by parishioners present;

Why had the parish precept increased from £4000 - £7000 over the last four years?It was advised that the parish council supported numerous beneficiaries in the parish including the church yards, the village halls etc and gave donations to the Wigton Baths & Air Ambulance.The annual accounts were available from the clerk.It was asked if the 1st responders could be supported but it was advised that there were no longer a Rosley 1st responders group due to a lack of volunteers, the nearest 1st responders were now Thursby & Wigton.

It was discussed that the state of the roads were disgusting, the farming community were travelling everywhere with silage trundling here and there which was damaging the roads.It was advised that this was a neighbour making a living!A simple solution would be lay-bys or passing places (farm gateways could be utilised) but there was no budget for this.

Speeding on the B5305 at Top Rosley is still a great concern to residents and it was noted that the November minutes stated a 20mph speed limit had been requested but that was not the case. The children’s adventure centre on the road is now an added concern as children were getting off the minibus onto the road instead of the bus being driven into the car park.Police advise that there is no issue with accident logs but accidents are only reported when an ambulance is called.Also, the speed limit should be extended on the Penrith side to include the bend and hill.Residents urged that the parish council again look at this stretch of road and the points raised be forwarded to Rory Stewart MP.

An email from Rory Stewart MP outlined that in March this year, the Chancellor confirmed that a new Gigabit Voucher Scheme was to be rolled out across the country, allowing businesses and homeowners to receive direct financial support for the installation of new future-proofed ultrafast fibre connections. This would be a real opportunity for communities to get together, pool their vouchers, and develop extensions to the BT fibre-enabled cabinet rollout which will bring services out into more remote areas. Ms Smyth kindly volunteered to look into this new scheme.